Hi bialy,
There are 3 important parts to the “value” of a mattress purchase (see post #13 here which I linked in my last reply).
- The first and most important of the three is how well you will sleep well on a mattress and how suitable it is for your body type, sleeping positions, and personal preferences.
You are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress so this isn’t something that anyone else can predict for certain but when you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation on the phone with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you.
With the Ikea Morgedal you will be able to answer this based on your own careful testing … hopefully following the testing guidelines in the tutorial post.
Since Costco employees don’t have the knowledge and experience to provide you with the kind of guidance that can help you make the most suitable choice … with an online Costco mattress purchase you would be “rolling the dice” and either the mattress will be a good “match” for you and you will be happy or it won’t and because they have a great return policy there would be little risk outside of the time and effort involved in testing it out and returning it and starting all over again if it turns out that it’s not as good a match for you as you hoped for. There is more about buying a mattress from Costco in post #4 here.
- The second most important part of the value of a mattress (assuming that you would sleep well on it) is it’s durability and how long you will sleep well before the materials begin to soften and break down and you lose the comfort and support that was the reason you purchased it in the first place (or kept it after you tried it). This is the part that I can certainly help with but I would need to know the type and quality of all the layers and components in a mattress (see this article) to be able to make any meaningful comments about the quality/durability of the materials and the mattress as a whole. If you aren’t able to find out this information I would pass the mattress by (see the guidelines here).
Sealy Marlow Heights
I don’t see the Sealy Marlow Heights listed on the Costco website but when you see a major brand mattress in this price range it’s safe to assume that the quality and durability of the materials are very low (even their much higher priced mattresses tend to use low quality and less durable materials). It’s also not likely that you will be able to find out the information you need to make an informed choice but if you are able to find out the specifics of all the layers in the mattress (see this article) and post them on the forum I’d be happy to make some comments about the quality of the materials and help you identify the weak links in the mattress. Again though … it would be safe to assume that the quality of the materials in a major brand mattress in this price range are very low and it may only be months to a very few years before you will likely need to replace the mattress. At best a mattress in this budget range would be suitable for a guest room or for a child’s mattress but I certainly wouldn’t purchase it for regular use for an adult.
Ikea Morgedal
You can see some pictures and comments about the Morgedal in post #3 here and in posts #58 and #59 here. The Morgedal uses about 4" of 1.7 lb polyfoam on top of about 3" of 2.2 lb polyfoam which are both good quality materials for this budget range. While the 1.7 lb polyfoam in the top layer of the Morgedal isn’t the most durable material … it would be higher quality than the upper foam layers in the Sealy and in most other mattresses in this price range so it would make a reasonable choice in terms of durability if you were limited to a mattress in this budget range.
- Outside of #1 and #2, the third most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you including the return/exchange options that are available after a purchase. I would keep in mind that with the Morgedal that you can only exchange the mattress and you can’t return it for a refund so once you buy an Ikea mattress you are “locked in” to either keeping the mattress you purchased or exchanging it for a different Ikea mattress (and paying any additional costs if the exchange mattress is more costly).
The bottom line is that I personally wouldn’t purchase a Sealy mattress in this budget range so by a process of elimination if these are the only two mattresses you are considering then the only one of the two that uses reasonable quality materials that would be reasonably durable out of the two is the Morgedal.
Phoenix